Concept Of Agility Research Articles

Evaluating Agile Information-Based Framework for Flood Management Utilizing Metadata Concept to Support Flood Operation Activities

Operational policies are established to handle natural hazards including floods to minimize the effect with differing degrees of effectiveness and increasing relaxation. Sometimes policies are time-consuming of rigid protocols that are inadequate in a dynamic and somewhat chaotic environment synonymous with the complexity of flood disaster. Hence, this research aimed at recommending the incorporation of agile concepts in flood control, which would offer stability and adaptability in the control of the complex flood situation. Extensive reviews on flood management and existing frameworks for disaster management were conducted to understand the problems and the potential solution to construct an agile framework. A grounded analysis was conducted to obtain insight into how the agility of standard operating procedures could be enhanced. The agile components have been defined by contrasting characteristics from other effective disciplines, including software development and health care, that share common complexity in management environments. Consequently, an Agile Information-Based for Flood Management Framework is proposed in previous publication. The validation component for agile key-values presented in the earlier article is, however, absent. This study therefore presents the validation component from earlier publication on the Agile Information Based Framework. A theoretical evaluation of the proposed key-values for the agile framework has been conducted using the metadata concept. The evaluation identified the similarity feature in the same area where the proposed framework was agreed to be implemented in tandem with electricity company emergency response plan to improve flood operations. The proposed key-values in the agile framework are required to be adopted and further strengthened by other significant variables.

The Impact of strategic Agility on the SMEs competitive capabilities in the Kingdom of Bahrain

With a highly uncertain and changing business environment, the typical way of planning a business is not particularly useful in different organizations worldwide. The current literature explores the concept of strategic Agility based on the idea of flexible planning and implementation and can pivot direction at the time of crises. Three main theories underpinning these concepts are contingency-based theory, resource-based theory, and Dynamic capability theory. These theories have one common point of view: enterprises' ability to cope with unexpected changes, survive unprecedented threats from the business environment, and take advantage of changes as opportunities. The literature has identified various variables that impact the adoption of strategic Agility in the organization, including strategic sensitivity, Resource fluidity, and Leadership unity. Some studies in the literature have found these variables as dimensions of strategic Agility. Further, the literature discussed how competitiveness could be achieved through strategic Agility at times of crisis, particularly in SMEs, which are highly prone to external problems due to limited resources and budgets.

Lean maintenance index: a measure of leanness in maintenance organizations

PurposeMaintenance organizations continue to be under pressure to systematically eliminate maintenance wastes and deliver services that their customers value. To this end, maintenance managers are implementing lean maintenance practices. But how does one consistently estimate the leanness of these practices in their organization? The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for a metrics – referred to as the lean maintenance index (LMI) that can help managers estimate the leanness of maintenance practices.Design/methodology/approachBased on a comprehensive review of literature in the domain, this study identifies four factors and nineteen subfactors that are essential for the success of a lean maintenance program. A fuzzy-set-theory-based assessment framework is developed that can be used by an in-house team to measure the degree of implementation of lean maintenance practices in their organization. The authors applied the framework to a maintenance workshop that services diesel engines and other prime movers.FindingsThe framework provides maintenance managers valuable insights to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of their organization vis-à-vis their maintenance practices, thus enabling them come up with a firm action plan for future process improvements.Originality/valueThis paper adapts the concept of agility and readiness to maintenance work. A key contribution of this study is the identification of factors and subfactors that forms the basis to estimate the leanness of maintenance practices in an organization. Another contribution is its application to a large maintenance workshop that demonstrates the ease of its implementation. Future research in this area can help identify more factors and subfactors and thus improve the estimation of leanness.

Theoretical fundamentals of the gility of strategic decisions / Fundamentos teoricos de la gilidad de las decisiones estratégicas

In the theory of organization and strategic management, the adaptation or adjustment of the organization with the highly dynamic environment was studied. Strategic decisions play the role of relating the environment with the organization. The objective of the document was to present the theoretical foundations of the agility of strategic decisions as a contribution to the theory of decisions. The dynamism of the environment is an important factor that influences organizations and managers to be more agile in making strategic decisions in order to take advantage of opportunities, face risks, survive in the market and achieve high performance. Perspectives are proposed as a theoretical foundation: strategic choice, "upper echelon", organizational capabilities, organizational agility and dynamic capabilities. A methodology based on a systematic review of the literature was applied. As a result, a theoretical framework is proposed for the study of decisions considering the dynamism of the environments and the attributes of the organizations. It is an important contribution to decision-making theory, by incorporating the concepts of agility, strategies, dynamism of the environment and the adaptation of the organization to the environment.

Exploring Factors Influencing Open Innovation Adoption in SMEs: The Evidence from Emerging Markets

Open Innovation (OI) is among the vital innovation paradigms for assisting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to effectively implement innovation initiatives. Drawing on the concepts of organisational agility and absorptive capacity with transaction cost theory, this study’s goal is to investigate factors affecting the adoption of an Open Innovation (OI) orientation in Thai SMEs. Using data from 214 SMEs in Thailand, structural equation modelling validated the model and analysed the proposed hypotheses. The results show that organisational agility, economic and financial readiness and absorptive capacity relate positively to OI adoption and innovation performance. Organisational agility (b = 0.553) had the greatest influence on OI adoption, then economic and financial readiness (b = 0.405) and absorptive capacity (b = 0.387) followed. The results of mediation analysis also reveal that OI adoption partially mediates the effects of organisational agility and absorptive capacity on innovation performance. Our study provides a trailblazing empirical analysis of the major factors influencing SMEs’ OI adoption and performance, extending knowledge of OI adoption by SMEs in emerging economies. The paper proposes a holistic framework for examining SMEs’ OI adoption and performance, through the integration of organisational agility, absorptive capacity and transaction-cost concepts. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01295 Full Text: PDF

APPLICATION OF MUNICH AGILE CONCEPTS FOR MBSE AS A HOLISTIC AND SYSTEMATIC DESIGN OF URBAN AIR MOBILITY IN CASE OF DESIGN OF VERTIPORTS AND VERTISTOPS

AbstractThis paper will adopt the Munich Agile Concepts (MAGIC) on the design of Vertistops and Vertiports (Verti-X) for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Systems. Vertiports and Vertistops are single or multi-landing spaces for air taxis, which are electric-powered vertical take-off and landing (eVTOLs) aircraft. The target of this paper is to apply a holistic approach how to design so called Verti-X in a holistic and system of system method from the Requirement-, Function-. Architecture- and the Implementation phase. The MAGIC approach contains all of the requierd phases which are necessary to build up such a complex design of Verti-X. Therefore, based on the literature survey, we have determined the key components of the Verti-X design with a thorough requirement analysis. Then, we have followed the existed criteria and regulations to design a valid and verified Verti-X which fulfills all the requirement. Furthermore, the focus of this paper is to apply the first four phases of MAGIC regarding the requirement, function, architecture and the implementation of such Verti-X Design.

A novel integrated intuitionistic fuzzy decision aid for agile outsourcing provider selection: a COVID-19 pandemic-based scenario analysis.

In project management, agility concept has emerged for overcoming the limitations of traditional methodologies that are sequential and linear. An agile project contains planned processes as well as iterations. In global competitive areas, achieving agility in outsourcing processes enables the companies to cope with changes and dynamic issues. This paper introduces an integrated cognitive map-based intuitionistic fuzzy multiple criteria decision aid to rank agile outsourcing provider alternatives and then determine the best performing one. Intuitionistic fuzzy sets are employed for dealing with uncertain and vague data along with the loss of information that may be occurred in numerical operations with fuzzy numbers. Intuitionistic fuzzy cognitive map tool is used to weight the evaluation criteria that are interrelated with each other with causal links. The most appropriate agile outsourcing provider alternative is identified via intuitionistic fuzzy complex proportional assessment technique, which aims to obtain a solution relative to the ideal solution. In order to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed intuitionistic fuzzy decision aid, a case study is conducted in Turkish white goods industry. As a comparative study, a scenario analysis is provided to understand the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on agile provider evaluation/selection decision. According to the results obtained from the scenario analysis, it is worth noting that home office procedures are appropriate for maintaining agility in outsourcing processes of project management.

Relationship between Speed, Visibility, Resvonsiveness, Learning Orientation, Supply Chain Agility, Enviromental Dynamic, Competitive Agility and Covid-19 Pandemic (Case Study in UKM Labusel Region)

The concept of supply chain agility is not very old, and a lot of research has been done to understand the constituents that build agility in operations and supply chains. As a continuation of that, this research contributes to the body of knowledge in many ways. First, make a theoretical contribution by exploring and explaining the factors that contribute to any supply chain agility especially in the context of the service industry in a volatile market. Second, in this study a framework is developed based on the dynamics of capability theory which is a big supporter of competitive agility by creating a value for H1: The results obtained with a value of Tcount 0.550 Ttable 0.098 at a significant level of 0.084 0.05. This means that the hypothesis can be accepted. H2: The results obtained with the value of Tcount 0.705 Ttable 0.098 at a significant level of 0.196 0.05. This means that the hypothesis can be accepted. H3: The results obtained with the value of Tcount 0.704 Ttable 0.098 at a significant level of 0.918 0.05. This means that the hypothesis can be accepted. H4: The results obtained with the value of Tcount 0.386 T table 0.098 at a significant level of 0.093 0.05. This means that the hypothesis can be accepted. H5: The results obtained with a Tcount value of 0.550 Ttable 0.098 at a significant level of 0.084 0.05. This means that the hypothesis can be accepted. H6: The results obtained with the value of Tcount 0.705 Ttable 0.098 at a significant level of 0.196 0.05. This means that the hypothesis can be accepted. Customers are uncommon and difficult to imitate and require effective organizational skills to be utilized efficiently and effectively. Third, by using SPSS 23, this study supports a causal relationship of factors that reduce agility as one of the abilities that organizations want to have. In addition, this study assigns weights among the factors that decrease agility where learning orientation explains agility the most, followed by speed, visibility, responsiveness, learning orientation and supply chain agility accordingly. Where speed has the highest explanation followed by appropriate visibility, responsiveness, orientation learning. However; more variables can be added to better understand supply chain agility and competitive agility.

Multi-layer agility: a proposed concept of business agility in organizational behavior perspective

Turbulence in the business environment imposed large companies or market leaders to become more agile in doing business. Developing business agility can be implemented in many levels of business organization. This paper proposes a multi-layer perspective of business agility construct by examining construct validity through structural equation modelling. Based on organizational behavior theory, this paper proposes combining construct from three different perspectives of business agility: strategic agility from an organizational perspective, leadership agility from a group perspective, and learning agility from an individual perspective. The paper involved 477 supervisors and managers of Indonesian oil palm plantations as respondents. The data was analyzed by using Lisrel version 9.30. The result explains that the second-order construct is the best-fit construct for defining multi-layer agility as a measurement model.

Paving the way for progress in employee agility research: a systematic literature review and framework

Troubled by increasing uncertainty in the business environment, many organizations have a strong need to become agile. There are indications that agility-oriented characteristics of employees, often referred to as “workforce agility”, play a key role in this regard. This paper systematically reviews the academic literature on employee agility, with an emphasis on conceptualization, operationalization, and the special role of human resource management (HRM) in shaping it. Our study finds that construct clarity, theoretical foundation, and rigor in operationalization are not yet well established, and that the role of HRM is under-researched. In order to pave the way for future research, we clarify the understanding of the employee agility concept and suggest a new definition resulting from our theoretical discussion. We embed this conceptualization in a newly suggested framework which is rooted in the work stressor framework. It links employee agility to the job demands of a dynamic environment, and outlines the role of flexibility-promoting HR practices. As such, we explicitly refer to a dynamic lens on person-environment (P-E) fit theory. Furthermore, through the suggested conceptualization of employee agility and the theory-based framework, we amplify existing theory. Based on our findings, we draw up an encompassing agenda for future research.

Development of a behavioral taxonomy of agility in the workplace

PurposeThe concept of workforce agility has become increasingly popular in recent years. However, defining it has sparked much discussion and ambiguity. Recognizing this ambiguity, this paper aims to inductively develop a behavioral taxonomy of workforce agility.Design/methodology/approachThe authors interviewed 36 experts in the field of agility and used concept mapping and the critical incident technique to create a behavioral taxonomy.FindingsThe authors identified a behavioral taxonomy consisting of ten dimensions: (1) accepting changes, (2) decision making, (3) creating transparency, (4) collaboration, (5) reflection, (6) user centricity, (7) iteration, (8) testing, (9) self-organization, and (10) learning.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ research contributes to the literature in that it offers an inductively developed behavioral taxonomy of workforce agility with ten dimensions. It further adds to the literature by tying the notion of workforce agility to the performance literature.Practical implicationsThe authors’ results suggest that it might be beneficial for companies to take all workforce agility dimensions into account when creating an agile culture, starting agile projects, integrating agility into hiring decisions or evaluating employee performance.Originality/valueThis paper uses an inductive approach to define workforce agility as a set of behavioral dimensions, integrating the scientific as well as the practitioner literature on agility.

Model EFQM in agilnost organizacij

Research question (RV): What is the contribution of an organization that follows the EFQM model and reorganizes its organization into an agile organization? Purpose: The purpose of the research is to examine the interrelationship between the EFQM model, agility and agile organization, and consequently faster adaptability, greater performance and competitiveness of the agile organization. Method: The article was based on a review of foreign and domestic literature. We reviewed the professional literature on agility and the EFQM model. We searched a link between agility and the EFQM model. Results: We will find that there are differences between agile management and organizational culture in organizations that are agile aware from those that are not. It is essential for successful agile organization leaders to develop effective communication and interaction skills that are unique to the leader and organization. It is important that individuals in the organization adopt a shared vision, participate in a culture of trust and inclusion, while leaders encourage creativity and experimentation. Organization: An agile organization is considered to be fast (innovative, agile, adaptable) and that it is necessary to constantly renew its business. The research will draw attention to the importance and necessity of management awareness that by creating a certain organizational culture and agile management of the organization, they will achieve faster and more efficient adaptation to changes in the environment. Society: The lack of agile management and the creation of an inappropriate organizational culture has a negative impact on the satisfaction of all involved in the process (employees, customers, suppliers) and consequently on adapting to the needs of the environment. Originality: The originality of the article lies in breaking down the myths about the concept of agility and agile organization, and presenting or evaluating the obtained results with the result of differences between agile and not agile or traditional organizations. Limitations / further research: The limitation represents a small number of articles and literature selected for comparison. Based on a larger sample of articles, we would get more relevant results. We also found a few articles in Slovenian.

Developing a measurement of employee learning agility

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop a reliable and valid measurement of employee learning agility for use in human resources development.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzed a total of 365 cases collected from Korean organizations. This paper conducted exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis to validate the measurement. This paper conducted a measurement invariance (MI) test to confirm the generalizability of the measurement and used Harman’s single factor test to assess the common method variance (CMV).FindingsThis paper derived a learning agility measurement with six subfactors (Cronbach’s α = 0.893). This paper verified that it could be applied equally to supervisors and subordinates using an MI test. Factor analysis confirmed the feasibility of CMV. Based on I-ADAPT theory, the learning agility measurement can be applied to assess not only leader competency but also general employee competency.Research limitations/implicationsPractitioners may use this model of learning agility for developing competency-based training programs and evaluations. This study is meaningful because it extends the concept of learning agility. In particular, the MI test indicated that there are no differences between supervisors and employees regarding the utility of the concept.Originality/valueThis study is meaningful because it extends the concept of learning agility. In particular, the MI test indicated that there are no differences between supervisors and employees regarding the utility of the concept. The concept in this paper is distinguished from other studies by applying the Rasch model from an item response theory perspective.

The Importance of Strategic Agility to Business Survival During Corona Crisis and Beyond

Strategic Agility is seen by many researchers and analysts as an innovative newly developed management paradigm adopted by contemporary organizations to achieve distinction and outperform competitors under conditions of environmental instability and uncertainty. This article is an attempt to introduce the concept of Strategic Agility and to demonstrate its basic characteristics and the importance of adopting it by various organizations to achieve excellence and sustainability. In a competitive environment, characterized by acute turbulence and continual shocks, as in the current environment of COVID-19, strategic agility offers a viable means to harness non-linear scientific and technological breakthroughs with a view to profiting from both the dislocation in the consumer sentiment and behavior and the breakdown in supply chains. Moreover, the article highlights the interaction between strategic agility and firm performance and emphasizes the need to create agile organizations that will thrive in a volatile and uncertain world.

Agile Supplier Evaluation Using Hierarchical TOPSIS Method

Increased competitiveness of the market enforces companies to respond quickly and appropriately to sudden changes in the market in order to adapt to continuously updated conditions of business environment and keep their survivals. Agility concept rises at this level due to necessity of coping with unpredictable changes and uncertainty. Agility enables the firms responsiveness in a quick and an effective way to the set of interdependent changes required in design, production, marketing and organization of the companies. This study addresses agile supplier selection problem. Hierarchical fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution approach (TOPSIS) is proposed for agile supplier selection problem in an airline company.

The Triple Role of Communications in Agile Organizations

ABSTRACT This study presents the findings of multi-method research that explores the challenges and implications of the concept of agility for the field of strategic communication. Despite its omnipresence in business practice, research on agility in the domain of strategic communication is scarce. Thus, a four-step research process was conducted to link the interdisciplinary debate about agility to the field of strategic communication. First, a systematic literature review across various disciplines provided a comprehensive understanding of agility and its key dimensions. Second, several conceptual frameworks for agility were analyzed and the relevant aspects for strategic communication were synthesized. In the third step, the current impact of organizational agility on corporate communications was explored by conducting empirical in-depth interviews with chief communication officers and senior communication managers from 38 multinational companies. Finally, the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical insights were combined to develop a framework for the role of strategic communication in the context of organizational agility. The findings of this study suggest that communication departments need to: a) adopt their own structures and processes, accordingly; b) enhance organizational agility by enabling other departments; and c) communicate the agile transformation of their organization both internally and externally.

Impact of Energy and Carbon Emission of a Supply Chain Management with Two-Level Trade-Credit Policy

Supply chain management aims to integrate environmental thinking with efficient energy consumption into supply chain management. It includes a flexible manufacturing process, more product delivery to customers, optimum energy consumption, and reduced waste. The manufacturing process can be made more flexible through volume agility. In this scenario, production cannot be constant, and with the concept of volume agility, production is taken as a decision variable under the effect of optimum energy consumption. Considering a two-echelon supply chain, we consider a producer and supplier with two-level-trade-credit policies (TLTCP) with the optimum consumption. To reduce the integrated total inventory cost, we believe that demand is a function of the credit period and selling price. The cost function is analyzed, either with the credit period dependent demand rate or with the selling price dependent demand rate through the numerical examples under energy costs. Energy and carbon emission costs are introduced in setup/ordering cost, holding cost, and item cost for producer and supplier. The effect of inflation on the total cost cannot be ignored; this model is being developed for deteriorating items with the simultaneous impact of volume agility, energy, carbon emission cost, and two-level-trade-credit policies with inflation. This supply chain model was solved analytically and obtained the optimum decision variables in a quasi-closed form solution. An illustrative theorem is being utilized to analyze the optimum result for all the decision parameters. The convexity of the objective function is being obtained analytically as well as graphically. Finally, numerical examples and sensitivity analysis are employed to illustrate the present study and with managerial insights.

Agile Approach as a Universal Remedy for the Usual Failure in the Development of Software Projects

Background: Agile is not a methodology neither can it be considered as a peculiar way of developing any software also it is neither a framework nor a process. Agile is a mindset or a collection of beliefs that can be used by the teams for taking the decisions while working on any software development. Agile mindset adopted for the development of software has gained attention of the researchers and industries across the world because otherwise the software project would turn out to be uncertain and very turbid. The universal remedy for the usual failure of the software project development is the agility. Actually saying agile is nothing novice instead it is a meta model based on best practices from the preceding models like waterfall, iterative, incremental and rapid application development method. Objective: The objective of this paper is to highlight various points of comparison between them and conclude that failing fast is failing cheap in case of agile for software development. Methods: So, we can say that an agile always existed but not in a structured and a formal manner. The two main methodologies of agile as an umbrella term are XP and scrum. Results: Thus in this paper we have discussed about scrum as a major methodology and also how various scrum roles contribute towards making teams self-organized to reduce the usual rate of failure of development projects. Conclusion: The success rate of the software applications developed through the agile concept is three times than that of the traditional waterfall method and also the percentage of cost and time overruns is much lower.

The role of perceived social media agility in customer engagement

PurposeThe concept of agility has been applied to several domains to help firms develop the capability to quickly adjust their operations to cope and thrive in environments characterized by frequent changes. Despite the soaring number of social media users and the benefits associated with agility in other domains, the application of agility in a social media context has yet to be explored. Further, little is known about how agility in a social media context impacts desirable customer-related attributes, such as customer engagement and customer-based brand equity (CBBE). This paper aims to address this gap by adapting the construct to social media (i.e. perceived social media agility) and exploring its impact on customer engagement and CBBE.Design/methodology/approachThis paper conducted an online survey with 200 adult subjects. This paper used multivariate regression analyzes to empirically test a scale for perceived social media agility and explore its impact on CBBE and customer engagement, along with the moderating role of customer change-seeking behavior.FindingsThe study results show that perceived social media agility directly and indirectly (through customer engagement) positively influences CBBE. Also, results show that the positive impact of perceived social media agility on CBBE is further magnified for customers high on change-seeking. However, customer change-seeking does not affect the strength or direction of the impact of perceived social media agility on customer engagement.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to social media literature by adapting and testing a measurement scale for the construct of perceived social media agility and exploring its role in enhancing customer engagement and CBBE.

Sprinting to digital transformation: a time boxed, Agile approach

Purpose The Transformation Sprint methodology provides a customer-focused analysis process in which leaders can learn about how their digital operating model should and can evolve. Design/methodology/approach Agile transformation processes are a learning journey to produce a generative (learning) model. In an Agile setting, the plan should unfold along with experience. Findings Sprints with specific time spans are intended to circumvent scope-creep or other insidious ways that a project can overrun. Practical implications In Agile practice, showing and talking about work is a crucial part of the process. Transformation Sprints visualize Issues, Priorities and Points for Debate in notes posted on meeting room walls. Originality/value This article describes the Agile concepts that make a digital Transformation Sprint a potent addition to innovation practice.